xXx: Return of Xander Cage International Trailer Highlights Ruby Rose

The xXx franchise was originally conceived as a starmaking series for Vin Diesel after he broke out in The Fast & The Furious, but when reviews and audience reactions came back mixed, he instead shifted his focus to the Chronicles of Riddick franchise and ultimately only found lasting success by returning to the Fast and Furious films. Nevertheless, xXx received a sequel, xXx: State of the Union, that shifted the focus from Diesel’s character to a new hero played by Ice Cube.

Now, Diesel is back for a xXx revival — even though his character Xander Cage was killed offscreen in State of the Union. But, a new international trailer takes the focus off of Diesel to spotlight a new character, one played by Orange is The New Black actress Ruby Rose.

In fact, if one didn’t already know that xXx: Return of Xander Cage was a do-over for Diesel, one could easily infer from this newest trailer that the film was actually a vehicle for Rose’s character. In Return of Xander Cage, Rose plays an enigmatic sniper named Adele Wolff about whom no details have yet been released save for her name and vocation.

Whereas previous ads for the film centered on Diesel doing various extreme sports-themed stunts, this one opens with Rose protecting lions from big game hunters before being summoned to action by Xander Cage. This call to action is followed by a montage of action scenes and stunts featuring the popular Australian actress and model, who first shot to fame as a DJ and MTV Australia personality before branching out into acting and modeling.

The trailer also suggests that the Adele Wolff character may have been partially inspired by Rose’s real-life persona, as it includes a scene set at a DJ-backed outdoor dance club and puts a particular spotlight on a sequence that has featured prominently as a “punchline” in the previous spots, wherein Wolff appears to flirt with a female special agent from Cage’s team played by Nina Dobrev. (Rose, who is openly gay, is an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and visibility in the film and music industries.)

While the trailer clearly wants fans to expect Rose’s Wolff to play a major part in the film – perhaps even equal to Xander Cage himself – it’s unclear how prominent her role will actually be. The film is said to have been conceived as a team-based adventure in the fashion of the more recent Fast & Furious films, and is reported to feature Cage assembling a team of similarly unconventional mercenaries to combat a team of mysterious terrorists.